My lawyers will defend me, says Al-Makura

The embattled Governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al-Makura, has expressed confidence that whether or not he appears before the panel set up by the state Chief Judge, Justice Umaru Dikko, his seven- team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, is capable of defending him.

The state chief judge, had on Friday last week set up a seven-man panel to probe the governor over the allegations leveled against him of gross misconduct of finical impropriety and breached of oath of office by the state House of Assembly.

The Senior Special Adviser on Public Affairs, Abdulhamid Kwarra said, “The governor will certainly appear before them (the panel) and after that we will go to the press and address them.”

When asked whether he knows the full names of members of the legal team that would defend the governor,, he said he did not know their names.

He said the venue and when the panel would seat had yet to be made known to the governor.

“The lawyers are capable of defending Governor Al-Makura on the allegations leveled against him by the lawmakers,” said SSA.

When asked whether the seven-man panel would sit during the public holidays he said he did not know.

A member of the state House of Assembly, Mohammed Okpede (Doma North) commented on a statement by the governor’s aide that the lawmakers would fail in their bid to impeach the governor.

He said: “As far as we are concerned, we are working with the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and we are on our way to reach there.”

On the earlier claim by the governor that he was not given the impeachment notice, he asked, “What made him to employ the service of SANs to defend him before the seven-man panel?”

Okpede denied that the lawmakers had been bribed by the governor to stop down their plan to impeach him.

He also said that the lawmakers did not meet President Goodluck Jonathan on the impeachment move against the governor.

Okpede further said that if the President waded into the matter, the lawmakers would tell him that it was a purely constitutional matter.

He added that if the President insisted on intervening, they (the lawmakers) would simply tell him that he was encouraging corruption